What You Need to Know:* Georgia State hosts Sun Belt Conference foe Troy Thursday through Sunday in a weekend series moved up one day due to Easter.* Senior center fielder Ryan Blanton has a team-leading five homers, 21 RBI and 18 runs scored.* Catcher-DH Nick Gatewood has 10 RBI in the last nine games and is now hitting .339 on the season.

LEADING OFF* Georgia State hosts Sun Belt Conference foe Troy Thursday through Sunday in a weekend series moved up one day due to Easter.* GSU head coach Greg Frady is a 1987 graduate of Troy and was a member of the Trojans 1986 Division II national championship team, when he was a teammate of current Troy head coach Mark Smartt.* Senior center fielder Ryan Blanton has a team-leading five homers, 21 RBI and 22 runs scored. * Six of Blanton’s 20 career home runs have led off a game, including two this season vs. Marshall on Opening Day and Coastal Carolina.* Blanton ranks in the Top 10 in GSU history in runs (124, 10th), walks (87, 8th) and triples (9, T-4th)* Catcher-designated hitter Nick Gatewood had three hits and a career-high four RBI Sunday at Arkansas State, and then two hits Tuesday vs. Mercer. Gatewood has 10 RBI in the last nine games and is now hitting .339 on the season.* Freshman pitcher Hunter Gaddis, a 6-5 right-hander and weekend starter, leads the team with a 3-3 record and a 3.12 ERA. * Gaddis took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in a 2-1 victory over UT Arlington on March 18.* The Panther pitching staff held No. 14 Ole Miss to one run on six hits in 19 innings in their two-game series split. Six different Panther hurlers threw in the series.* Shortstop Justin Jones, the Panthers’ has two game-winning hits this season. In the March 8 win at No. 14 Ole Miss, Jones delivered a two-run double in the top of the 11th inning for the 2-0 victory. On March 18 in a 1-1 game vs. UT Arlington, he hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth and GSU won 2-1.* Georgia State’s 2017 schedule is perhaps the most ambitious in school history. The 2017 slate includes four different Power Five opponents and 13 games against 2016 NCAA Tournament teams, including a home series with Coastal Carolina, the defending national champions and the newest member of the Sun Belt Conference.* Eleventh-year head coach Greg Frady earned his 500th college coaching victory in the Panthers’ 12-4 victory over Northern Kentucky on March 4. Frady now has 318 wins at Georgia State, plus 187 wins at North Florida C.C. (1991-96) for a total of 505.* Frady is Georgia State’s career leader in victories after passing Mike Hurst (293) on March 20, 2016. In the last year he has also been honored with two different Hall of Fame inductions, joining the German Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame and the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame.

SERIES vs. TROY* Georgia State and Troy are playing in Atlanta for the second straight year. Troy won all three games, 4-2 (11), 9-3 and 16-3, part of the Trojans’ seven-game winning streak in the series.* The Panthers’ last win over Troy was a 6-3 victory in 2014, when GSU took out of three in Atlanta.* The 2014 series in Georgia State’s first year in the Sun Belt was the first between GSU and Troy since 2005, when both were members of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The two schools played annually as members of the TAAC/A-Sun from 1999-2005. Troy leads the overall series 28-9.